What’s Better: SEO or PPC?

The question of SEO or PPC, which is better for your business depends on your needs: whether you’re new to the marketing industry or have been in it for a while. Here are a few insights that will help you decide.

SEO VS PPC

What Are the Differences Between SEO and Pay-Per-Click Advertising?

Many clients ask us, “Is SEO better than PPC?” There is really no general answer to this question, because it really, truly depends on your goal, your objectives, and the competition you face.

I believe this all comes down to your digital marketing strategy. Understanding your target audience and how they use the web is essential to determining whether paid search, organic search or a combination of the two is the best approach for your unique and ever-changing situation

This post will discuss the pros and cons of both SEO and pay-per click (PPC) as a marketing strategy, and offer some tips on how you can choose the right channel for your business.

SEO VS PPC

When comparing SEO and PPC, there are two key differences. Traffic derived from SEO, for example, is free, while PPC will lead to a cost for each click. Many cases, SEO and PPC can work best when strategising together.

SEO OR PPC

SEO: Increase your organic traffic

We’ll start with the pros: organic search engine traffic drives a lot of traffic.

1. The visibility of your business in search engines for your targeted keywords is similar to advertising, and it provides brand awareness.
2. Having a brand that appears for pertinent commercial search terms and informational queries about your business or area can have a positive branding impact. You can become recognized as an authority to the searchers.
3. Being in the organic results gives your business an all-important stamp of approval. Users skip advertisements and trust organic results more — being visible gives you that stamp of approval. Having strong review and reputation signals will give you further benefit
4. The increasing number of website visitors can help you raise awareness of your business and educate prospects in regard to why they should buy from you.
5. Search engine traffic is free… sort of. Getting that visibility requires time and effort (money), however there is no direct cost for each click or impression.
6. Organic search traffic is likely to deliver a much better ROI than paid media and is certainly preferable to PPC.
7. The SEO process for promoting brand awareness and for bringing relevant traffic to your website will typically be less costly than the other marketing tactics.
8. The traffic you get from organic search does not disappear when you stop paying, so it can sustain you when your marketing costs drop.
9. Organic results have better click-through rates. While some exceptions exist, users are more likely to click on an organic listing than on a highly-placed paid ad.

In many cases, SEO can be hard work, and it can be slow to rake in the traffic. If you are just starting out and the keywords your targeting show results dominated by companies like Amazon and eBay, then it is time to rethink your strategy.

The need to develop content assets to achieve strong organic visibility is another obstacle. Not all businesses have the internal resources to manage content development, and this may present a challenge. Safe, sustainable link building tactics can be challenging to master, and they often need a strategy, as well as expert support.

Digital marketers utilize the informational or pre-purchase research channels to attract their audience. This can be valuable traffic, but building a relationship with these users may require a staged approach. This process is one of the keys to successful marketing, but it is not right for all brands.

Persistent Pay-Per-Click

Paid search differs from organic search in the following negative respects: Click-through rates and trust are greatly favored by organic search. So why would businesses consider PPC? Here are some benefits of paid search:

1. Content placement. Paid search usually dominates above-the-fold content, so even if searchers choose to scroll past the paid search ads, they will always see them.
2. Advertisements. PPC ads are just that: advertisements. They give you more control and more area for delivering your messages. Calls, locations, site links, pricing, and callouts are just some of the options for creating ads that dominate the page.
3. A visual shopping option. Google offers the option of visual shopping ads (Product Listing Ads, or PLAs) that help customers visualize the product they are going to click on. By offering a more visual ad, this can improve the user’s click-through rate.
4. A paid search advertisement will help you be seen by the right people, even if they don’t click to your website.
5. Manage your budget. PPC offers tight control over ad spend. Determine how much budget you can spend per day (ideally with some initial return ideas), and set that fixed limit.
6. Advertising with PPC allows you to reach a more targeted audience with keywords, times of day, days of the week, languages and devices. Organic traffic, in contrast, is more scattershot.
7. PPC campaigns can be developed and scaled up in just a few days, while developing organic visibility takes many months. There is no faster method for reaching customers at the moment they are primed to buy.
8. Market visibility. Organic search, which keeps keyword info hidden, can provide a deeper understanding of clients’ goals through paid search. Conversion tracking and integration with analytics software (such as Google Analytics) allow for far more accurate tagging of keywords and their conversion rates.
9. Many advertisers believe that PPC is expensive, but in fact it is one of the less expensive ways to generate leads, especially if you have a local business targeting a small area and very specific keywords. Take control of your PPC campaigns and maximize your return on investment.

As with organic search, there are a few pitfalls in PPC advertising. Costs can quickly spiral for PPC campaigns, particularly if you target entire countries or run international campaigns.

Paid search advertising is, as the name suggests, paid — so it requires constant investment. Stop paying the piper, and your ads go away and your lead generation dries up. So long as you have a solid acquisition cost, then this should not be a problem, but in contrast to SEO, it can feel like a bad deal. Of course, SEO should be ongoing to keep the opposition at bay, but organic traffic can be a little more robust.

What should I do: SEO or PPC?

The answer to this question cannot be given without taking into account a given business’s unique situation.

An entrepreneur looking for just a few leads per week would likely be able to develop organic and local SEO visibility.

Online stores competing with large retailers such as Target, Walmart, Amazon, eBay and other department stores, will likely struggle in organic search (at least for the short term).

PPC and SEO are complementary.

Ideally, we ought to research both SEO and PPC. Both have their pros and cons, and work best when supporting each other on a synergistic level.

With hundreds of clients, we have learned that an integrated search strategy using both SEO and PPC is the most effective. Results are improved with both paid and organic search. This path is not for every business; however, for high-growth marketing, utilizing both SEO and PPC will yield better results.

SO what which one do you prefer?